Percy Jackson and the Olympians: Book Three
By: Rick Riordan
“Love conquers all,” Aphrodite promised. “Look at Helen and Paris. Did they let anything come between them?”
The Titan’s Curse
“Didn’t they start the Trojan War and get thousands of people killed?”
“Pfft. That’s not the point. Follow your heart.”
*This post contains spoilers for The Titan’s Curse
Overview:
It’s not everyday you find yourself in combat with a half-lion, half-human.
The Titan’s Curse
But when you’re the son of a Greek god, it happens. And now my friend Annabeth is missing, a goddess is in chains and only five half-blood heroes can join the quest to defeat the doomsday monster.
Oh, and guess what? The Oracle has predicted that not all of us will survive…
As always, these books each focus on different Greek myths. The Titan’s Curse focuses mostly on Atlas and Artemis.
Atlas is the Titan who’s curse is to hold up the sky. In this story Luke helps him escape this by tricking Artemis to hold it, thus trapping her. She takes it for Annabeth who was tricked into taking it for Luke. This is in hopes of progressing Luke’s plan to raise Kronos and overthrow the Gods of Olympus.
Of course, Percy and his friends defeat them and live another day. Luke falls of a cliff and Percy believes him to be dead but it is revealed that he survived.
The second myth is of Artemis. Artemis is the Goddess of the hunt. Luke and the Titan’s want to take her off the board so she cannot aid in the fight against them. Most of the story focuses on her Hunters who are female mortals who are given immortality for their service to Artemis.
What works in the book is the quest itself. It felt like the heroes were getting back to what made the first book so enjoyable. Going on a cross country quest with Greek mythology sprinkled in along the way. Yes, The Sea of Monsters was a quest but it felt less about the quest and more about the places they stopped along the way.
What didn’t work was the secondary bad guys sprinkled in. Dr. Thorn and his cast of characters felt like afterthoughts. As if the author needed bad guys and couldn’t figure out a way to get any of the characters we already know into the story.
I also don’t love the sidelining of Thalia by having her join Artemis’ hunters in the end. I hope that this is only temporary as it makes it more interesting to have more people on the board who the prophecy can be able. Yes, we now have Nico but it doesn’t quite feel the same.
Overall,
The book was better than the second installment but still not as strong as the first.
I wish there was a little bit more mirroring of a specific quest in Greek mythology but that is my own personal preference. I like to look for the nods to these stories woven within the Percy Jackson universe.
As always it is still hard to suspend the belief that all of the characters and items from Greek mythology have somehow found their way to the United States. You just have to except it and enjoy the story for what it is.
Rating: 3/5 stars
